Early last week, Anglo-Iranian's negotiators had walked into the
Teheran meeting room with a highly reasonable offer: the British would
accept, almost without qualification, the principle of nationalizing
Anglo-Iranian. They suggested this method of procedure: Britain would
give up all its Iranian assets (worth about $1 billion) to an
Iranian-owned Persian National Oil Co. In turn, the new company would
contract with an operating concern to manage production. The operating
concern would be directed by a joint British-Iranian board. Final item:
Britain would pay Iran $28 million immediately,...